Jennifer Bain (Halifax)Michel Gammon (Sherbrooke)Jean-Pierre Noiseux (Montréal)William Oates (Hamilton)William Renwick (Hamilton)Barbara Swanson (Regina)Christopher Morrissey (Langley)

In This IssueReport on HalifaxconferenceWelcome to new BoardmemberSwitch to electronicCantemusNew Home for SarumNew Chant Choir inMontrealMember publishes bookCD Launch by MemberAnd More

BULLETIN OF THE GREGORIAN INSTITUTE OF CANADA

Volume 5, Issue 2December 2011ANTEMUS

Board of Directors

GREGORIANINSTITUTE OFCANADAL'INSTITUTGRÉGORIENDU CANADA45 Mercer St.,Dundas, ON CanadaL9H 2N8www.gregorian.caigc.gic@gmail.com

Salzinnes Antiphonal, 1554, folio 2r, The Annunciation, SaintMary's University, Halifax, Nova Scotia (Photo: Judith E. Dietz)

GIC Sixth Annual Colloquium - Halifax 2011Chant: Old and New

The sixth annual colloquium of the GregorianInstitute of Canada met this summer at DalhousieUniversity, in Halifax, Nova Scotia. With the themeof the colloquium drawing its inspiration from theSalzinnes Antiphonal, a 16th-century Cistercianchant book originally from the Namur region inBelgium and now owned by Saint Mary's Universityin Halifax, the four-day weekend was packed withworkshops and papers.Even before the attendees started arriving on theThursday morning, members of the University ofKing's College Chapel Choir, music director PaulHalley, members of the executive of the GregorianInstitute, and our four student helpers (Maria,Meredith, Katrina and Ryan) were all filmed by asmall crew from CBC television, capturing the last-minute rehearsing, stuffing of conference bags,poster making, photocopying and mad dashes upand down the hall. Making the national CBC newsaugured well for the rest of the conference.

The Gregorian Institute ofCanada (GIC) undertakesresearch and education topromote the study andperformance of Gregorianand other Western chantrepertoire in Canada. GICis a not-for-profitcorporation licensed andauthorized to provideofficial tax receipts fordonations in support of itsmission. Founded in 2004,GIC is a non-denominational associationaffiliated with the Schoolof the Arts, McMasterUniversity, Hamilton, ON.

The colloquium had many highlights for me, beginning with the opening evening with aninspiring session led by singer and pedagogue extraordinaire, Susan Hellauer, from theinternationally renowned early music ensemble, Anonymous 4, and the singing of Compline inthe sculpture court of the Dalhousie Arts Centre.To highlight the Salzinnes Antiphonal, Friday featured a stand-alone session on the manuscriptitself, with a joint paper by Judith E. Dietz from the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia and SherryGuild from the Canadian Conservation Institute, presenting some of the exciting results ofseveral years of study of the Antiphonal as an historical artefact. The manuscript - produced byhand in the age of print - has a special connection with Halifax. As Dietz demonstrated, themanuscript was likely brought to Halifax in the nineteenth century by Bishop William Walsh asone of many religious objects he purchased for his 'mission' in the New World. In the 1970s thebook was found in the attic of the Archbishop's residence and donated to the then CatholicSaint Mary's University. It was virtually ignored until a decade ago when Dietz began workingon the manuscript to secure a provenance culminating in a successful application to have themanuscript studied scientifically (pigments identified etc.) and restored by the CanadianConservation Institute in Ottawa.To further highlight the Antiphonal, on Friday evening some of its music was performedbeautifully by five-time Grammy-winning composer, conductor and performer, Paul Halley andmembers of his University of King’s College (Halifax) Chapel Choir. The program featuredmusic from the Antiphonal for St. Hubert, St. Roch, and for Mary, complemented by other ‘late’chant by 12th-century composer, Hildegard of Bingen, and her fellow Benedictine, the 11th-century Hermannus Contractus.

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Colloquium report continued:We also enjoyed several works of polyphony, 16th-centurymotets by the Franco-Flemish composer, Orlande deLassus (also known as Orlando di Lasso). The threefeatured motets were all included in Lassus’s very firstcollection of music to be published, in a volume printedby Tylman Susato in Antwerp—just 90 kilometers awayfrom the Abbey of Salzinnes—in 1555, the very year thatthe Salzinnes Antiphonal was completed in manuscript.Much to everyone’s delight, the city of Halifax showedgreat enthusiasm for chant, with 250-300 people attendingthe concert.To help contextualize the Antiphonal, papers and sessionsaddressed various issues related to the manuscript throughthe conference theme—Chant: Old and New. Papersaddressed topics such as the tracing of old repertories innewer collections (Hoefener, Maiello, and Gattozzi); ‘late’chant repertories (Swanson, Bennett, Saucier, Helsen, andParcianello); the reception of medieval chant in the early-modern and modern era (Smith and Bain); oldassumptions and new methodologies (Yampolsky,Morrissey, Helsen, Lacoste, and Macrae); and Europeanchant books found in North America (Dietz, Guild, andSewright). The scholarly sessions were complemented by aseries of three further workshops by Susan Hellauer,including one on the music of late chant composerHildegard of Bingen; by a session on the MesseBordeloise, from a Quebecois chant book from the lateeighteenth century (Noiseux); and on chant incontemporary liturgical practice (Hall and Malton).Participants—scholars and practitioners together(including a dedicated local chant group), and chapel choirmembers—also rehearsed over the course of thecolloquium with William Renwick on the music for amedieval Sarum Mass, culminating in a liturgical serviceled by Father Gary Thorne at the Chapel of the Universityof King’s College on Sunday morning.The Saturday of the colloquium brought two furtherhighlights for me: Margot Fassler, award-winning authorand editor of four books and countless articles, who wasrecently appointed the Keough-Hesburgh Professor ofMusic History and Liturgy at the University of NotreDame, gave an energetic and rousing plenary address onher Alleluia Project in the early afternoon, and at 6:45 p.m.we all boarded a bus on a glorious, sunny evening, sang astirring version of medieval hymn and Acadian nationalanthem, Ave maris stella (transcribed in this case from theSalzinnes Antiphonal), and headed out to the south shore,for our banquet dinner overlooking a tiny and beautifulharbour in Hubbards, Nova Scotia. As my husband saidon Facebook: “You've never really heard plainchant tillyou’ve heard it on a school bus headed to a lobstersupper.”

Jennifer Bain, Dalhousie University

University of King's College Chapel Choir, (Photo A. Macrae)

Colloque attendees singing the offiice (Photo A. Macrae)

Colloque attendees lobster dinner (Photo W. Renwick)2

Replacement on GIC Board of DirectorsGIC would like to welcome Christopher S. Morrissey as new member of theBoard of Directors. He will replace David Hall who has been on the Boardsince 2007. Many thanks to David!Christopher lives in Langley, British Columbia, and is an Assistant Professorof Philosophy at Redeemer Pacific College. He specializes in the Latinphilosophy of Thomas Aquinas. His current research interest is GlobalSemiotics. Christopher also teaches medieval ecclesiastical Latin.

Christopher Morrissey and William Oates (Photo V. Chen)

Cantemus: New Format, New EditorFrom now on, the GIC bulletin Cantemus will be published primarily in electronic form. Not only will this considerably reduceprinting costs, but it will also allow us to increase the number of issues per year and widen distribution, while giving us moreflexibility with respect to quantity of information. Although it will still be possible to print off copies of Cantemus for those rareGIC members who might not subscribe to internet, upon request for institutional members, and for special events such asconcerts, workshops, and colloquiae, Cantemus now becomes first and foremost an electronic publication. By the same token, wewill also cease to disseminate our Newsletter, previously sent to members 3 or 4 times a year.These fresh developments also coincide with a new arrival: we are very pleased to welcome our temporary Cantemus editor,William Oates, to whom we are very grateful for taking on the responsibilities associated with the position, and to warmly thankour outgoing editor Julia Armstrong, who has been at the helm of Cantemus for the last four years.The mandate of Cantemus is to report on the activities of GIC members, and to provide information to members about allaspects of Gregorian chant as it is practiced in Canada and internationally. Our publication will attain its objectives moreeffectively if you provide us with your news; we cordially invite you to do so by writing to us at igc.gic@gmail.com .Happy Reading!

Sarum Rite Publication Gets New HomeWhen you search google for Sarum chant one of the new sites listed iswww.sarum-chant.ca. This is the new home for the Sarum Chantpublications being published by our own Dr. William Renwick.

Montréal Gets a New Choir - Chœur grégorien de MontréalA brand-new Gregorian chant choir has started up in Montreal under the leadership of Jean-Pierre Noiseux. By offeringGregorian chant training to amateur singers in the Montreal region, the new choir fulfills a much-needed role. The Choeurgrégorien de Montréal is open to everyone, men or women, who wish to learn and practice Gregorian chant. Since September2011, some fifteen enthusiasts meet every two weeks, to work not only on Gregorian melodies, but also on the fundamentals ofperforming chant, such as breathing, attentive listening, Latin pronunciation, reading of neumes, the rules of psalmody and thoseof Gregorian rhythm, etc…For more information or to join the Chœur grégorien de Montréal, please contact via e-mail: cgregmont@gmail.com.

The Sarum Rite is now published in two English Editions. The Performing Edition conforms to the text-style of the Book ofCommon Prayer and the King James Bible. The Performing Edition facilitates performance by streamlining the rubrics, and byreorganizing the material where appropriate. The Scholarly Edition conforms to the text-style of the Challoner-Douay-RheimsBible, which follows the Vulgate, and follows the same order as the Latin edition.

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New Book by GIC member Dr. Neil Moran"The Origins of Western Notation" Revised and translated by Neil Moran was recently published by Peter Lang PublishingGroup.Modern music notation developed out of the so-called square notation and this out of the Latin neumes. The question of wherethese neumes came from has long been the subject of scholarly debate. As the author demonstrated in his three-volume UniversaleNeumenkunde published in German in 1970, there is a very close relationship between the Paleo-Byzantine notation and the Latinneumes. Although the study aroused a great deal of dispute, more recent studies have revealed that the relevance of theNeumenkunde remains essentially unchallenged after 40 years. Those path-breaking research results on the relationship of theGreek and Latin notational systems are now available for the first time in a completely revised and augmented English translation.Constantin Floros is a professor emeritus of musicology at the University of Hamburg and a prolific writer on diverse subjects.He was the first researcher who systematically examined, compared and decoded the oldest Byzantine, Slavic and Latin neumaticnotations.Neil K. Moran is the author of numerous studies on European cultural history in Antiquity and the Middle Ages. His books areof fundamental importance for those interested in the Ordinary chants of the Byzantine rite and for the iconography of churchsingers in the Middle Ages.Review of Book«(Floros') work, while not giving the last word in the domain of semiology, could today certainly again be the point of departurefor productive developments, both in the domain of Byzantine music as well as in the area of Gregorian chant.» (Luca BasilioRicossa)

CD Launch by MemberSchola Magdalena is pleased to announce the release of a second CD, “VirgoSplendens”. Recorded in the glorious acoustic of the Church of Saint MaryMagdalene, Toronto, “Virgo Splendens” is a beautiful collection of medievalmusic for women’s voices, featuring chant by Hildegard of Bingen,polyphony by Guillaume Dufay, John Dunstable, and others, as well asGregorian chant. Many of the works come from the rich array of musicdedicated to the Virgin Mary, including plainchant Marian anthems and anintricate polyphonic setting of the Magnificat.The CD was launched with a concert and wine and cheese reception onSeptember 24, 2011, at the Church of Saint Mary Magdalene, where ScholaMagdalena is an ensemble-in-residence. To order Virgo Splendens ($20 plus shipping and handling), emailinfo@scholamagdalena.ca. or visit www.scholamagdalena.ca to download therecording via CD Baby.

GIC returns to KalamazooIn May of 2012 the GIC will return to Kalamazoo (http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/); but in a different format. In order toavoid overlapping with sessions given by Musicology at Kalamazoo we have joined forces. They graciously agreed to host oursession entitled Regional Musical Practices. That session will include papers from three scholars who will be familiar to those whoattended our Halifax Colloquium:"The Sarum Mass for the Ascension", William Renwick;"Beneventan Chant and the Feast of the Ascension in the Middle Ages", Bibiana Gattozzi;and "Dominican Mass Chants for the Ascension", Br. Innocent Smith, o.p..The session will also include a performance, lead by our own Jean-Pierre Noiseux, which will attempt to bring these papers to life.

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More photos from the Colloquium in Halifax!

Susan Hellauer Teaching (Photo V. Chen) Br. Smith OP and Fr Missio (Photo V. Chen)

CCOOLLLLOOQQUUEE 22001122!!!!!!!!!!GIC 7th Annual ColloquiumMontreal (QC), August 16-19, 2012Montreal will host the 7th annual colloquium of the Gregorian Institute of Canada from August 16 to 19, 2012, at the Centre decréativité du Gesù, as well as in the magnificent Gesù Church (http://www.legesu.com/).Program will include chant workshops, led by Philippe Lenoble, Director of the Choeur grégorien du Mans (France), as well aslectures and liturgical offices.A gala concert of French baroque plain-chant will be performed by the singers of the Schola Saint Grégoire of Montreal,accompanied by a serpent and ophicleide player.Colloquium will end with the celebration of a mass in the ordinary form, completely sung in Latin. For updates, please visitregularly the GIC website (http://www.gregorian.ca/).

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